Protein kinases represent a large family of proteins, which play a central role in the regulation of a wide variety of cellular processes and maintaining control over cellular function. Protein kinases constitute a large family of structurally related enzymes that are responsible for the control of a variety of signal transduction processes within the cell (see Hardie, G and Hanks, S. The Protein Kinase Facts Book, I and II, Academic Press, San Diego, Calif.: 1995). Protein kinases are thought to have evolved from a common ancestral gene due to the conservation of their structure and catalytic function. Almost all kinases contain a similar 250-300 amino acid catalytic domain. The kinases may be categorized into families by the substrates they phosphorylate (e.g., protein-tyrosine, protein-serine/threonine, lipids etc).
In general, protein kinases mediate intracellular signaling by catalyzing a phosphoryl transfer from a nucleoside triphosphate to a protein acceptor that is involved in a signaling pathway. These phosphorylation events act as molecular on/off switches that can modulate or regulate the target protein biological function.
These phosphorylation events are ultimately triggered in response to a variety of extracellular and other stimuli. Examples of such stimuli include environmental and chemical stress signals (e.g., shock, heat shock, ultraviolet radiation, bacterial endotoxin, and H2O2), cytokines (e.g., interleukin-1 (IL-I) and tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNF-a), and growth factors (e.g., granulocyte macrophage-colony stimulating factor (GM-CSF), and fibroblast growth factor (FGF)). An extracellular stimulus may affect one or more cellular responses related to cell growth, migration, differentiation, secretion of hormones, activation of transcription factors, muscle contraction, glucose metabolism, control of protein synthesis, survival and regulation of the cell cycle.
A partial, non-limiting, list of these kinases include: receptor tyrosine kinases such as platelet-derived growth factor receptor kinase (PDGF-R), the nerve growth factor receptor, Trk-A, -B and -C, and the fibroblast growth factor receptor, FGFR3; non-receptor tyrosine kinases such Abl and the fusion kinase BCR-Abl, Lck, Csk, Fes, BTK, Bmx and c-src; and serine/threonine kinases such as Aurora, c-RAF, SGK, MAP kinases (e.g., MKK4, MKK6, etc.) and SAPK2α and SAPK2β. Aberrant kinase activity has been observed in many disease states including benign and malignant proliferative disorders as well as diseases resulting from inappropriate activation of the immune and nervous systems.
The novel compounds of this invention inhibit the activity of one or more protein kinases and are, therefore, expected to be useful in the treatment of kinase-associated diseases.